1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a suture winder machine and, more particularly, pertains to a semi-automated suture winding station of the machine adapted to facilitate the high-speed winding of multiple sutures, which are each attached to needles, into a peripheral channel of a tray utilized for packaging the needles and attached sutures. Moreover, the invention is directed to the provision of an apparatus for the attachment of a cover to the tray containing the needles and attached sutures. The cover-attaching apparatus includes a novel structure to enable the separation of a product-identifying label as a component of the tray which will remain with the tray subsequent to the removal of the tray cover.
The packaging into suitable containments of either single or multiple sutures which are attached, such as by being swaged, to needles, whereby the attached needles and sutures are generally referred to as armed sutures, in order to meet the requirements of users of such combined surgical needles and sutures; for instance, such as surgeons or other health professionals, is well known in the health-related technology, and numerous and widely diverse types of inexpensively manufactured suture packages have been developed in industry.
In some instances, suture packages are designed to contain a multiplicity of needles and thereto attached sutures, whereby the suture packages must facilitate the uncomplicated withdrawal of individual needles and their attached sutures from the package in a smoothly implementable and unobstructed manner. In essence, when the needle is gripped; for instance, by means of a forceps, and pulled out of the suture package, it is necessary that the needle easily disengage from the package, while the suture which is attached to the withdrawn needle should also readily slide out of the package in the absence of any binding or snagging, and also without becoming entangled with other sutures still remaining in the suture package. Hereby, in a specific package construction, the needles are generally engaged by clamping structure so as to be "parked" or retained in a central region of a suture package, such as a flat tray, which may be formed from an injection-molded plastic material, wherein the sutures extending from the needles to which they are attached are conducted into and deposited in a peripheral channel formed about the suture tray and so as to extend within the peripheral confines thereof. This positioning of the needles, and particularly of the sutures, in the package or tray is intended to eliminate tight bends or curves normally imposed on the sutures and to reduce package shape memory associated therewith. The package shape also facilitates their easy individual withdrawal from the suture package without entanglement with the remaining sutures or snagging on the package.
A flat tray-shaped suture package has been presently developed in order to provide for the storage of multiple needles and sutures, and which takes cognizance of the need to facilitate the smooth and unhindered withdrawal of individual needles and therewith attached sutures from the suture package, as in a copending U.S. patent application entitled "Multi-Strand Suture Package and Cover-Latching", commonly assigned to the assignee of the present application; (identified under Attorney Docket ETH-849); and referred to as an RSO package (Reduced Size Organizer). In that particular constructional design, the suture package is basically a rectangular, round-cornered and flat-bottomed injection-molded plastic tray-shaped structure having a flat central surface area including a raised needle clamping structure formed thereon for engaging and "parking" a plurality of needles in a predetermined spaced array. Sutures each have ends attached to each of the respective needles so as to form so-called "armed sutures". The sutures extend from each of the needles into a channel extending about the perimeter of the suture tray and are conducted into the channel so as to be essentially wound within the peripheral confines of the suture package or tray.
The plurality of sutures which are located within the suture tray channel are basically protected against inadvertent outward dislocation through the presence of a multiplicity of contiguously positioned resilient fingers which are integrally formed with the suture tray, and which project outwardly over the confines of the channel along a major portion of the peripheral length of the channel and form collectively a so-called "zipper" structure in which the resilient nature of the fingers facilitates their temporary raising to enable the introduction of the sutures into the suture tray channel by means of suitable suture winding procedures.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Currently, the winding of the sutures into the suture tray channel is ordinarily implemented in that the suture package or tray containing the needles and attached sutures is manually rotated on a fixture to enable a device to temporarily deflect the resilient fingers upwardly in a successive order to thereby enable insertion of the sutures beneath the raised resilient fingers for depositing in the channel during rotation of the suture tray.
The foregoing substantially manual and relatively crude procedure for winding the sutures into the tray channel during rotation of the suture tray is quite time-consuming whereby, to a significant extent, it represents an obstacle to a high output rate and economical manufacture of mass-produced quantities of suture packages containing multiple needle and attached suture components.